The German fund industry is largely unconcerned by the increasing likelihood of a so-called “no deal” Brexit.
In the week that the UK government stepped up its planning for the possibility of the UK crashing out of the EU with no agreement on future trading links with the remaining 27 member states, a survey of members of the German national funds association BVI found that the industry in Germany is not concerned by the prospect of no deal.
Almost two-thirds of the 345 respondents surveyed said that they had few or no concerns about a no-deal exit from the EU by the UK.
According to the BVI, the insouciance stems from the fact that portfolio managers based in London only manage seven percent of the specialised institutional investment fund assets and three percent of the retail fund assets in Germany.
So far as Germany is concerned, BVI said, the United States is more important as an outsourcing market for Germany’s €2.6 trillion investment fund market.
The survey also shows that 2018 was a good one overall for the investment funds sector, but not as good as 2017.
For 46% of respondents the expectations they had in the autumn of 2017 were met in 2018, while for 27% 2018 turned out worse than expected. In 2017 almost 60% of survey participants forecast a good financial year in 2018.
Asked about the business outlook for 2019, 44% of investment companies predicted that their position will remain unchanged, while 32% expected their earnings position to worsen in 2019.
©2018 funds europe
